Definitive guide to Mass Effect: Origins of a Hero
by Commander Klassen
Summary: just a couple of definitions, explaining parts of my story


**Definitions**

**Aldrin Labs:** Is a human manufacturer based on the Luna colony. Providing basic, reliable equipment at an affordable cost has made them a primary supplier of armor, Omni-tools and bio-amps to the Systems Alliance military.

**CH-47 Chinook Helicopter:** The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter. Its top speed of 200mph is faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s.

**Galactic Standard Time:** 20 hours, 100 minutes, 100 seconds, 50 milliseconds; as opposed to 24 hours, 60 minutes, 60 seconds, 100 milliseconds.

**Hahne-Kedar:** Reliable and efficient, Earth-based Hahne-Kedar has become a major supplier to the Systems Alliance military. Their weapons are stock quality at best, though their armor lines are generally recognized as above average. It has at least one known subsidiary organization, the Hahne-Kedar Shadow Works.

**Hahne-Kedar Shadow Works (HKSW):** Founded in 2155, this Hahne-Kedar subsidiary is a place for younger employees to "think outside the box". HKSW supplies weapons and armor to Alliance Special Forces units. In keeping with the parent company's philosophy, products are rugged, reliable, and require less maintenance than competitors.

**Jormangund Technology:** A rising star of post-contact human industry, Jormangund returns consistent profits through aggressive integration of alien technologies. Mainly known for advanced optical computers and AI "blueboxes", the company has recently developed a "micro gravitic" personal weapon that effectively fires small disruptor torpedoes.

**Kassa Fabrication:** A human-controlled private company, Kassa Fabrication is known to make the some of the finest body armor in the galaxy. When it comes to personal protection suits, no expense is spared - as reflected in the exorbitant cost of their products. Kassa also makes top quality weapons such as the advanced Harpoon Sniper Rifle. Recently, Kassa has also begun to manufacture Omni-tools, though it will be some time until the quality is brought up to the high standards of their armor lines.

**Mag-sling:** the way of securing weapons to hard suits with all levels of armor.

**M-19 Cobra, M-25 Diamondback, and M-86 Python:** Produced by HKSW, these weapons are produced for the Alliance Special Forces soldiers, and are open to many customizations.

**MH-64 Valkyrie:** A vectored-thrust Gunship. The predecessor to the M-61 Mantis. First rolled off the assembly lines in 2155, the Valkyrie is a staple of ground support for the Alliance. Its modular construction means that the versatile Valkyrie can be reconfigured as a low-altitude gunship, a fighter, a troop transport carrying 6 soldiers with all their kit, and a high-altitude bomber. It has an eezo core which lightens the craft, allowing it to take off vertically and hover in place using minimum fuel. When used in ground-attack roles it is most commonly armed with two sets of four missiles under each wing, M250 miniguns in the door gunner position, and a belly-mounted M350 mass-accelerator auto cannon.

**Pinnacle Maneuver:** where soldiers are disembark or board without the helicopter landing

**Operating in the 'black':** Combat psychologists had determined that there were four broad states to humans in relation to combat, mostly definable by heartbeat and blood pressure. The lowest, white, was a steady state. This was a person unstressed by combat and the hormones and endorphins released by it. Heartbeat was steady and low, blood pressure the same. Above that was yellow, generally found in persons who were aware that combat might occur at any time but were still more or less steady-state. Heartbeat was slightly elevated as was blood pressure. Above that were the ascending red, red being Shakespeare's famous quotes regarding summoning up 'the actions of the tiger'. Heartbeat was generally in the high hundreds, blood pressure well over two hundred and while fine motor control was reduced the fighter was acting at what most warriors considered maximum capability. Time was distorted, hearing was distorted, and the world was an unreal state. The tiger was on the back of the deer and rending. But above red was black. Most combatants, entering the black range, lost effect. At the black range the heart was pumping so fast oxygen to the brain was reduced due to poor pumping action, blood pressure so high that the fighter was seeing either a red loud or the true tunnel vision of the brain slowly blacking out. But some warriors, the most highly trained, could enter the black and function. By definition, they were some of the most deadly persons on earth. In black, the fighter's reactions were superhuman, their automatic training processes working at a level beyond gestalt, their shots so fast that even on single shot they sounded like a machine gun and everyone was going to hit a target. A fighter who could ride the wave of black could, would never miss.

**Rolex Deepsea:** customized to adjust to galactic standard time- I'm assuming that since Rolex has been around since the 1900's, that it will be around for another 200 years.

**Spinal insert:** an implanted medicine dispersal device. It releases stimulants, depressants, painkillers, or any other drug added to its chambers.

**Shepard's Onyx Armor has:** Jormangund Technologies mass effect field generator,

Jormangund Technologies combat exoskeleton,

Kassa Fabrication Ablative plates,

Kinetic Exoskeleton from Aldrin labs,

Pressurized Seals for NCBR hazards.

**Undersuit:** a non-porous heavy weave that provides minor ballistic and environmental protection, with microframe computers, whose input detectors are woven throughout the fabric, and applies medi-gel.

**VI:** virtual Intelligence.


End file.
